Yarn, fiber, cooking and a baby on occasion!

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Starting with a Blank Slate

Everything starts with a blank slate right? Well, my new socks sure do! I will be attempting to knit Two-at-a-Time, Toe-Up Socks, using the magic loop method. And the socks are hand-dyed? I used KnitPicks……(my favorite online yarn store!)….sock blanks. You order them, and they come in a big rectangle, preknit with two strands. You can dye them using whatever you prefer whether it be koolaid, food dye, teas, or the Jacquard dyes that KnitPicks actually sells. I personally prefer Wilton Icing Dye purely because I had access to buying some and I didn’t have to wait for it to get shipped here. I bought some at our Arts & Crafts Center on base.

Well, I’m very impatient, so the day after I got my box at the CMR, I had to dye at least one! I did order 2 blanks though, and some bare yarn to dye too. The first step is to soak the blanks for a few hours so they are nice and wet. Also, as far as I understand (i get most my info from blogs, and don’t have a dyeing book) using vinegar helps your dyes not to bleed, so I also included plain white (German) vinegar in my yarn soak. Then I took my yarn outside and dyed it using some bowls and spoons, and using some squeeze bottles. I used pink, green, purple and some black to write “Imagine” across it. Imagine, mainly because I think it’s important to use your imagination to be crafty. Here’s the pic:

Then I wrapped it up into a cheap, thin garbage bag, which I thought would work as well as Saran wrap. Then you stick it in the microwave for a few minutes, to let it steam. This allows the color to set. Now, either the garbage bag didn’t work as well as I had thought, or the dye I used was no as concentrated as I wish it would have been, because once the sock blank dried the color was very pale. However, I highly doubt it was the steaming that was the issue, because when I rinsed the yarn no dye seemed to come out.

I was not happy. Was not happy at all. The only color that wasn’t faded was the green, so I decided to dye it again. Yes….another overdye on my part. I only used the pink and purple though, because the green was still pretty bright. I think this was a mistake, the green isn’t very prominent in the final product. However, I still love it!

Now I just hope I do well with the Two-at-a-Time, Toe-Up, Magic Loop Socks. I will keep you updated on my progress of course!